Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-10-21
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subject. "TInoccupied Fields

,IAfter the church was full OF people, ana
all the adjoining rooms packed, az many
people went away from the doors as got in1
TEXT: LEST I should build upon another
mdi's JbaRdatiols. Romans XIV, 20.
Stirring reports come from all parts of
America showing what q great work the
churches Of God are doing, and | congratu-
late them and their pastors. Misapprehen-
slons have been going the rounds of some Of
the religious pres depreciating the gener-
osity OF this church S7Sl ,3l6.24 have been
paid cash down in this church for religious
uses and Christian work during the nineteen
years of my ministry here. This church was
built by all denominations of Christians and
by people from all lands, and hence we have
teen raising money for many objects outside
our denomination, and that has sometimes
lnterfered with our contributions to the
Boards OF our denomination. Subscription
books for all good objects, Christian, humant-
tartan, collegiate and missionary, have been
here as common as the daylight, and no
church in Chr,standom has been more con-
ttnuous in its benevolences than this Be
side that we have received during the year
ISS souls on profession OF faith in Christ, q
fact that mention, not in boasting, but to
show that this church has not been idle.
The most OF our accession5 have been from
the outside world, so that, taking the idea Of
my text, we have not been building on other
peoples foundations.
Ia laying out the plan of his missionary
tour Paul sought out towns and cities which
had not yet been preached to- He goes to
Corinth, city mentioned for splendor and
vi 9, and Jerusalem, where the priesthood
and the Sanheirim were ready to leap with
both feet upon the Christian religion. He
feels he has especial work to do, and he means
To do il Whpf NUaa fba poz11lFy Tho md
est life of usefulness that a man ever lived.
We modern Christian workers ara not apt TO
initiate Paul. We buil1 on other peoples
foundations. If we erect a church we prefer
to have it filed with families, all of whom
have been pious Do we & lther a Sabbath
school class, we want good boys and girls,
hair combed, faces washed, manners attract
i've So church i'll this day Is apt to be
built out Of other churches Some ministers
spend all their time in fishing in other peo-
pies ponds, and they throw the line into that
church pond and jerk out a Methodist, and
throw the line into another church pond and
bring out Presbyterian, and there is re-
hgious row in some neighboring church, and
whole school Of fsh swim OFF from that
pond, and We take them all in with one sweep
OF the net What is gained Absolutely
nothing for the general cause Of Christ 1t
Is only as in an army, when regiment is
transferred from one division to another,
from the Tennessee to the Potomac.
What strengthens the army is new recruits.
What have always desired Is that while we
are courteous to those coming from other
hocks, we build our church not out Of other
churches, but out Of the world, lest we build
on another mans fou 1dation. The fact Is
this Is a hig world. When, In our schoolboy
days, We learned the diameter and circumfer-
ence OF this planet we did not learn half. It
mas latitude and longitude and diameter
and circumference Of want and woe and sin
that no figures can calculate. This one spir-
itual continent OF wretchedness reaches across
all zones, and if were called to give It's geo.
graphical boundary would say 1t Is bounded
on the north and south and east and west by
the great heart OF Gods sympathy and love-
Oh, 1t Is a great world, Since O'clock this
morning &C, 800 persons have been born, and
all these multiplied populations are to be
reached of the Gospel. In England, or
In our eastern American cities, we
are being much crowded, and an acre Of
acres Is a small farm, aud 10000 les Is no
unusual possession But there Is a vast spir-
itual field here and everywhere unoccupied,
plenty of room for more not building on
another mans foundation.
We need as churches to stop bombarding
the old tronclad sinners that have been proof
against thirty years Of Christian assault.
Alas for that church which lacks the spirit Of
evangelism, spending enough on one chande-
lier to light 500 souls to glory, and in one
carved pillar enough to have made thousand
men pillars in the house of our God for
ever,n and doing less good than many log
cabin meeting house, with tallow candles
stuck in wooden sockets, and minister who
has never seen college or known the differ.
ence between Greek and Choctaw. We
need as churches TO get into sympathy
| with fla nutciAa Nyo1slJ nd 1att tha,1-
know that none are so broken hearted OF
hardly bestead that will not be welcomed
| mo" says some fastidious Christian, 81
don't like to be crowded in church. Don't
| put any one in my rev." My brother, what
will you do in heavenl When a great mul
titude that no man can number assemble:
they will put fifty in your pew. What are
the select few to-day assembled in the Chris
tian churches compared to the mightier mill
ions outside of them, eight hundred Thousand
| In Brooklyn, but less than one hundred
thousand in the churchesi Many of tht
churches are Ike hospital that should adver
tise that its patients mujt have nothing
| worse than toothache OF "ru1-rounds," but M
broken heads, no crushed al K les, no fractured
| thighs Give us for treatment moderate sin
ners, velvet coated sinners and sinners will
a gloss on. 1t is as though a man had ,
| farm OF three thousand acres and put all hi
| work on one acre He may raise never s.
large ears Of corn, never 50 big heads of wheat
he would remain poor. The church of God ha
bestowed its chief care on one acre, and ha
raised splendid men and women in that small
inclosure; but the field Is the world. Tha
means North and South America, Europe
Asia and Africa ami all the islands of tn,
sea- 1t Is as though after great battle Their
were left $1,000 wounded and dying on tn
field, and three surgeons gave all their tim
to three patients under their charge. Tn
| Major General comes In and says TO the doc
tors: Come out here and look at the nearl,
$4,000 dying for lack of surgical attendance
mo" say the three doctors, standing ther
flaming their patients, ''we have three I'm
portant cases here, and we are attending Il
them, and when we are not positively bus
with their wounds, it takes all our tim
to keep the flies off," In this awful bat
tie of sin and sorrow, where millions hav
i. fallen on millions, do not let us spend all ou
time in taking care OF q few people, and whe
the command comes: "Go into the world,
say practically, No, l cannot go; have her
a few choice cases, and am busy keeping oil
the flies" There are multitudes to-day VIII
have never had any Christian worker loo
them in the eye, and with earnestness in th
accentuation, say: Gomez or they woul
long ago have been in the kingdom. M
friends, religion is either sham or tremeI
dous reality. II 1t be sham, let us disban
our churches and Christian association.
1t be reality, then great populations are o
the way to the bar OF God untitled for IL
ordeal, and what are we doingi
In order to reach the multitude OF ou
siders we must drop all technicalities out {
our religion. When we talk to people abot
the hypostatic union and French Encycl
pedianism, and Erastinianism, and Compl,
tensianism. we are as imrolitic and lit
understood as If physician should talk to a
ordinary patient about the pericardium an
interc0stal muscle, and scorbutic symptom
Many OF us come out of the theological sem
naries so loaded up that we take the first te
years to show our people how much we know
and the next ten years get our people
know as much as we know, and at the er
find that neither of us know anything as v
ought to know. Here are hundreds ar
thousands of SHINING, struggling and dyir
people who neel to realize inst one thing.